Deadline of Oct 22 fixed for furnishing of details by all deptts
*New mechanism won’t impact services rendered so far
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 11: As only few days are left for transition to new administrative mechanism, the Government has sought options from the employees, who are serving on substantive basis in connection with the affairs of existing State of Jammu and Kashmir, for their further allocation to the successor Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh.
EXCELSIOR on August 8, 2019 had exclusively reported that employees of all the departments of the State Government will be asked to furnish option for serving in the Union Territory of their choice while as modalities in respect of employees of State Public Sector Undertakings, Corporations and other autonomous bodies will be worked out within a period of one year from October 31, 2019, when the new Union Territories will formally come into existence.
A provision for seeking option to serve either in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir or in Union Territory of Ladakh has been kept in the Jammu and Kashmir State Reorganization Act, 2019, which was passed by the Parliament in the month of August this year.
Section 89(1) of the Reorganization Act, which deals with the provisions relating to services other than All India Services, reads: “Every person who immediately before the appointed day is serving on substantive basis in connection with the affairs of the existing State of Jammu and Kashmir shall, on and from that day provisionally continue to serve in connection with the affairs of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh, by general or special order of the Lieutenant Governor of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir”.
Provided that every direction issued after the expiry of a period of one year from the appointed day shall be issued with the consultation of the Government or Administration of the successor Union Territories as the case may be, Section 89(1) further reads.
Section 89(2) of the Act states: “As soon as may be after the appointed day, the Lieutenant General of Jammu and Kashmir shall, by general or special order, determine the successor Union Territory to which every person referred to in the Sub-Section 1 shall be finally allotted for service, after consideration of option received from the employees and the date with effect from which such allotment shall take effect or be deemed to have taken effect”.
This Sub-Section further reads: “Even after making of the allocation, the Lieutenant Governor of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir may, in order to meet any deficiency, depute officers from one successor Union Territory to the other Union Territory”.
In view of these provisions, the General Administration Department has sought options from the employees who are serving on substantive basis in connection with the affairs of the existing State of Jammu and Kashmir for their further allocation to the successor Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh.
All the Administrative Departments have been asked to ensure that every employee enters details in the option form and submit the report to the concerned Head of the Department after due verification by the Drawing and Disbursing Officer (DDO) concerned by or before October 22, 2019.
However, it has been made clear that while preference in favour of Union Territory expressed by Government servant will be taken into account while allocating the person to a UT, it shall not be obligatory for the Government to allocate the employee to the UT of his/her choice.
“It shall be the prerogative of the Government to allot/depute the employee in terms of Jammu and Kashmir State Reorganization Act, 2019”, reads the circular issued by Dr Farooq Ahmad Lone, Secretary to the Government, General Administration Department.
As per Sub-Section 3 of Section 89, every person, who is finally allotted under the provisions of Sub-Section 2 to a successor Union Territory, shall be made available for serving in the successor Union Territory from the date as may be agreed upon between the Government of the successor Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Administration of Union Territory of Ladakh.
Pointing towards Section 90 of the Act, which deals with other provisions relating to services, sources said, “the new administrative mechanism will not impact services rendered by the employees till date”.
This Section states: “Nothing in this Section or in Section 89 shall be deemed to effect, on or after the appointed day, the operation of the provisions of Chapter 1 of Part XIV of the Constitution in relation to determination of the conditions of service of persons serving in connection with the affairs of the Union Territory”.
“The conditions of service applicable immediately before the appointed day in the case of any person deemed to have been allocated to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir or Union Territory of Ladakh shall not be varied to his disadvantage except with the previous approval of the Lieutenant Governor”, Section 90(1) reads.
Similarly, Sub-Section 2 of Section 90 reads: “All the services rendered by a person prior to allocation to any Union Territory shall be deemed to have been rendered in connection with the affairs of that Union Territory for the purposes of rules regulating his condition of service”.
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